Ariane 1 was the first rocket in the Ariane launcher family. Ariane 1 was designed primarily to put two telecommunications satellites at a time into orbit, thus reducing costs. As the size of satellites grew, Ariane 1 gave way to the more powerful Ariane 2 and Ariane 3 launchers.[1]

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Ariane 1 was the first launch vehicle to be developed by the European Space Agency. It was developed from the L3S Europa launch vehicle replacement design. The development of the vehicle was authorized in July 1973. The cost of program is estimated at 2 billion euros. With lift-off mass of 210,000 kg (460,000 lb), Ariane 1 was able to put in geostationary transfer orbit one satellite or two smaller of a maximal weight of 1,850 kg (4,080 lb).

The Ariane 1 was a four stage vehicle (fourth stage put satellite from GTO to GEO is usually not counted as part of rocket, because it is included in 1.85 tons of payload). The first stage was equipped with 4 Viking engines developed by the Société Européenne de Propulsion. The second stage had a single Viking engine. The third stage had one LOX/LH2bipropellant engine capable of a thrust of 7,000 kgf (69 kN). The fourth stage was powered by a single Mage-1 solid rocket booster producing a thrust of 20 kN.

The first launch was on 24 December 1979, and was successful. The second launch, in 1980, failed shortly after launch due to a combustion instability in one of the Viking first stage engines. The third launch succeeded in orbiting three satellites, and the fourth and last qualification launch was also a success.

During the next launch, the first commercial one, the rocket ceased functioning after 7 minutes of flight due to a turbopump failure in the third stage. After a complete review of the launcher, the next 6 flights were all successful. The Giotto mission's spaceprobe was successfully launched on the tenth Ariane 1 (flight V14) on 2 July 1985.

The first SPOT satellite was put into orbit by the eleventh and last launch of Ariane 1 on 22 February 1986.[3]